Swarm Ethics: Evolution of Cooperation in a Multi-Agent Foraging Model Olaf Witkowski † and Takashi Ikegami Department of Multi-Disciplinary Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan (Tel: +81-3-5454-6535; E-mail: {olaf|ikeg}@sacral.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp) Abstract: “It brings out the animal in us” is often heard, when speaking of unaltruistic behavior. Frans de Waal has argued against a “veneer theory” of one of humanity’s most valued traits: morality. It has been proposed that morality emerges as a result of a system of evolutionary processes, giving rise to social altruistic instincts. Traditional research has been arguing that fully-fledged cognitive systems were required to give each individual its autonomy. In this paper, we propose that a simple sense of morality can evolve from swarms of agents picking actions such that they are viable to the survival of the whole group. In order to illustrate the emergence of a moral sense within a community of individuals, we use an asynchronous evolutionary model, simulating populations of simulated agents performing a foraging task on a two-dimensional map. We discuss the morality of each emergent behavior within each population, then subsequently analyze several cases of interactions between different evolved foraging strategies, which we argue bring some insight on the concept of morality out of a group, or across species.This proposed approach brings a new perspective on the way morality can be studied in an artificial model, in terms of adaptive behavior, corroborating the argument in which morality can be defined not only in highly cognitive species, but across all levels of complexity in life. Keywords: Swarm, Agent-Based Model, Evolution of Morality, Norms, Ethics, Evolutionary Biology, Empathy, Altruism 1. INTRODUCTION ”Scratch an altruist and watch a hypocrite bleed” said Michael Ghiselin, illustrating a popular way of thinking about morality. Recently, Frans de Waal has suggested that morality originates from the perception-action mech- anism, specifically empathy [1]. According to de Waal, the foundations of morality are found in kin selection, re- ciprocal altruism, reputation building, principles of fair- ness, empathy and conflict resolution. Mainstream philosophers have long argued that the emergence of a moral behavior emerged from the evolu- tion of fully-fledged cognitive systems [2]. According to traditional theories, each individual does not simply have intentions, but assesses and adopts them, thanks to his au- tonomy, as Kant called it, i.e. his capacity for normative self-government [3]. With the years, the study of moral- ity seems to have focused more on this cognitive debate on moral thoughts, rather than moral actions themselves. Vygotsky [4] proposed that a society solves its prob- lems in a macro-social scale rather than at the individual- to-individual interaction. The way this mechanism would work relies on a feedback from the macro to the micro scale, as a viable society develops mechanisms to trans- form the individuals’ interactions to make them civil. That is, the perception-action loop ought to be fine-tuned at the scale of each individual, in order to satisfy the so- ciety’s needs. The focus on the perception-action loop seems there- fore crucial, and it is especially the case if morality must ever be considered for other animals than merely human beings. As de Waal advocates for a continuity between human and nonhuman primates, it is natural to wonder how the concept may be extendable to other lifeforms. In this paper, we propose that a natural first step to study † Olaf Witkowski is the presenter of this paper. this kind of behavior is the use of an abstract, minimalist model to understand the links between micro and macro mechanisms. Looking now more in detail, moral emotions have been proposed to be the subjective denomination of the dynamics regulating animal cooperation, an evolutionary adaptation requiring to sacrifice part of individual fitness in favor of better survival chances of the group [5]. This biologically oriented approach to the evolution of moral- ity offers a radical departure from the traditional way many philosophers [6] have thought about morality as being rooted in rational reflection, and has recently been supported by studies about the innateness of moral be- havior [7, 8]. To understand the emergence of certain behaviors, the behaviorist approach suggests to look at the direct causal mechanisms that bring it about, i.e. experienced mental states sometimes called motivations [9] or emo- tions which are accompanied by characteristic physio- logical changes [10]. Examples of mechanisms may in- clude hunger, fear or sexual desire, and have been catego- rized and measured in animals, and can also be described partly in neuro-endocrine and other physiological vari- ables [11]. One therefore turns to evolutionary adaptation theories to explain morality. Based upon such approach, we propose to study adap- tive cooperation and coordination at a basic level of be- havioral complexity, using an agent-based modeling tool, to study the hypothesis of emergence of a moral sense in single individuals for the benefit of the group. This approach is analog to the study of the phenomenon of swarming, in the way that the micro-behavior interacts with, modifies and is modified by the macro-behavior. As mentioned earlier, we will explore morality as a set of evolved parameters which regulate the perception- action loop, in order for the population to escape from